I guess this year it's a Lion

With a birthday at the beginning of March (Thursday, in case you're wondering. There are two shopping days left!), I know first hand of the "in like a lion, out like a lamb". Some years it was full on spring for my birthday, other years, like this one, freezing my bits off in the deep freeze of winter.

I don't care, I'm going skiing tomorrow. And Wednesday! It's snowing out there and I'm fast running out of ski days, since the entire month is all about me! For example:

- March 11-13: trip to Fun-couver with my mom to see the amazing Dr. Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson at the "I Can Do It" conference. There will be other fun things too, because, well, Fun-couver is FUN!

- March 18-20: yoga retreat in Golden, BC with my yoga teachers, Nora and Judy

- March 25-28: trip to Hamilton to visit friends and run Around the Bay (30K)

Not much time to hit the slopes, so I must take advantage while I can!

In preparation, I thought I'd make up a schwack of chili for lunch at the hill. I pulled out a few cookbooks and settled on Vive le Vegan's Cocoa-Coconut Chili. I was intrigued by the addition of cocoa, coconut milk, allspice and cinnamon to the traditional chili ingredients. The result: it's ok. It's not bad, but it's not the best chili ever, either. I thought there could have been more heat (I had to add quite a bit of hot sauce) and a squeeze of lime and cilantro helped bring out the flavours. Maybe when it's reheated...would I make it again? I doubt it. I can do better on my own.

Alas, I need to clean up the kitchen, pack the lunch (there may also be some *cough cough* Amarula and hot chocolate going in the lunch bag) and gather up my gear. I bought a pair of super warm long johns at Patagonia this afternoon to keep me warm on the chair lift!

Happy Monday!

Brrrrr!

Holy Mother of God, it's cold out there! It's -25C, which isn't *that* bad, until you add the frickin' wind chill. -35*C Damn you, Mother Nature! Just when I had found my running mojo again!

I took my gear to work last night to run the stairs on my break, but we (me and Sam, my co-worker/friend/stamper-slash-card-maker-extraordinaire) did some yoga instead! I did actually have to go down to the basement to get some reagents, so did one set of stairs. I thought I was going to die. And in the stairwell? What a way to go! Note to self: remember to take inhaler to work!

Tonight the gear is going back and I'm spending at least 20 minutes powering up and down those stairs. If I can't run outside, I can at least work on my endurance and hill training inside where it's warm!

Oh and did I mention

that I've ran more (and farther) in the last two days than I have since I finished my marathon? Yay, chinooks!! Boo to headaches that come with the chinooks, but I may have found my running mojo.

Note to self: you need at LEAST 4K to warm up. Short runs suck. Long runs good.

Left. Right. Repeat.

Wedding Showers

Are typically not my thing. Toilet paper dresses, silly games and that ribbon hat just don't work for me. Thankfully, they also don't work for my co-worker, Holly, either! What did we do instead?

A few of us gathered early this afternoon (after I ran 9K to mitigate some of the damage I knew would ensue) to make her thank you cards. We drank some wine, had some snacks, listened to some great tunes and made the most amazing cards. Of course, my camera is still on the fritz and I've yet to take it to a professional to look at, so Holly and Nik have the only photographic evidence of our labours. Lemme just say, we're pretty crafty! And wine makes us even better!

Around 5:30, the rest of the work gang arrived with their potluck goodies in hand. The spread was amazing! We ate some more, drank some more, laughed, cried, and laughed again.

Now that's my kind of wedding shower!

Knackered

That's me.

I had a pretty good day skiing on Wednesday, but the visibility sucked. It snowed all day and you couldn't see anything above the tree line. I went up the Angel chair 'cause I heard the snow was pretty good up there. When you have no depth perception, you also have no speed perception! Before I knew it, I was almost hurtling down a black run I knew I didn't want to go down, but I could have sworn I was hardly moving. Verrrrry disconcerting!

But I had a blast in the trees! I wasn't brave enough to tackle the bumps on Standish without my friends, but I made it all day without a wipe out. I also didn't head over to Goat's Eye because the visibility was so bad, which made me kind of sad. I really wanted to play in the great powder!!

Worked Thursday. Boo. I wanted to be skiing (did I mention it snowed all day on Wednesday?!)!

Yesterday was one of those days!
1. Co-worker calls in sick. I cover their bench. No biggie, since we anticipated they'd be sick since they left early on Thursday.

2. Different co-worker has meltdown for seemingly no reason. Turns out she's completely misconstrued comments made about planning workflow (see #1, above) and seethes for an hour before melting down.

3. Ready for beer/wings/wine/nachos & cheese by 0830h.

4. Do work left from evening shift (again, no biggie, I had the time, but somewhat annoying, nonetheless).

5. Two co-workers call in sick for evening shift. I offer to stay late if I'm needed. Start testing early to help ease workload.

6. Discrepancy in previous results and current results. This is a BIG deal where I work. All kinds of conference calls get made by the big-wigs (not just my bosses, but their bosses and their bosses' bosses). I'm trained to do the investigative side of this kind of thing, so I'm now staying late to do that...

Anyhoo...yesterday was a long day! 0700-2040h. Did I mention that most of my work is standing? (well, it's either that or sitting at really ergonomically not good work stations--either way, it's not kind to your body). Yeah, physically, mentally and emotionally drained. And I got to go back this morning for more...

But today ROCKED! No big plans for tonight other than Corrie, yoga, knitting, and a soak in the tub. I haven't decided what to make for dinner though...I should get on that since lunch was awhile ago.

Tomorrow I'm going for a run then to work. And I'd love to sleep in....like maybe till 7!

Happy weekend!

Egad! Time Flies!

What's been going on in my world? Well, I worked 5 days last week (this is big for a 4 day/week girl) so that my co-worker could go to his BIL's wedding in India. It wasn't too bad--4 day shifts then an evening. My mom arrived on Thursday so there has been lots going on! For example:

-trips to Costco & Superstore to restock old Mother Hubbard's bare cupboards
-calling the police to remove sleeping homeless man from my parking spot on Friday night
-noodles
-filing (and preparing income tax documents to send to the accountant)
-yoga (Friday morning, Saturday and Sunday afternoon)
-trips to the Farmer's Market where I ran into my third cousin (small world)
-Pizza in the 'hood with my grandma
-laundry (the bane of my existence)

Yesterday I hit the slopes with my yogi friend Carole, her hubby,Joe, and their friend, Bill. We left early and got to Sunshine in time to get rock star parking. They'd had 38cm in the past 3 days so we were itching to play in some powder! It was great skiing! My favourite run, Tin Can Alley, got the best of me (not quite an epic wipe out, but enough to get snow where it was slightly uncomfortable!) so I had to go back and show it who was boss. We headed down through the trees and played in some powder...wheeeee!

Then we were going to show the boys the li'l black diamond run Carole and I discovered the last time we were there, but it was cold and windy and the snow sucked at the top of the Angel chair. So we headed to Standish, where they proceeded to push me (in a good way) to where I'd never been before. Now, the last time we were there, I was proud of myself for attempting the blue runs (Big and Little Bunkers). Yesterday we did not only the blue runs, but they had me going down the moguls under the chairlift! It wasn't overly graceful, but I got down (without falling, I might add) and I turned (I know how to turn. I know how to turn. I know how to turn.) more than once!

After lunch we headed to Goat's Eye. I love the snow below the tree line! Up top though--icky--icy, hard, windy and not much fun. But below the tree line is another story altogether. My quivering quads declared they needed a break, so I sat a run out and then we went back for a final run on Standish before skiing out.

Best Valentine's Day EVER!! I'm going back tomorrow--'cause I can!

OUCH!

Three days of intense yoga back to back leaves some sore, achy muscles behind! There was lots of this:


Eka Pada Rajakapotasana II

and this:


Chaturanga Dandasana

and this one was fun to do in a chorus line:

Utthita Hasta Padangustasana

Photos from yogajournal.com

And there's been way too much Vasithasana (I couldn't find a really good picture of the full pose (side plank with leg lifted holding the toe)--I'll keep looking) all around for my liking!

Let's just hope the arm balancing class today doesn't leave me flat on my face!

Wowsa!

Down 4 pounds from last week! Whoo hoo!

Tracking is key for me, I must not forget this.

I've also had two really great yoga practices this week, with two more on the schedule for today and tomorrow.

New favourite food find: savoury oatmeal

Yesterday I rescued some veggie chili from my freezer (who knew it would still be good a year later?), simmered it down till it was nice and thick and topped a huge bed of spinach (wilted slightly in the microwave) with some cheesy oats and then the chili. Mmmmmm......good.

A weekend filled with knitting, yoga and good friends is on the agenda. Happy Saturday!

January Recap

I took my measurements this morning. Since January 1,

Down 4 pounds (average 1 pound per week, not bad)
Upper arm -1/8"
Waist -3/4"
Hips -1/4"
Bust -1/2"
Thigh +1/8"

Total inches lost this month: 1.5

I've also got a frog sticker (I ran out of turtles) every single day this month. That's either a yoga practice (sometimes just headstand, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes 90 minutes) or meditation or both. If my camera was working I'd take a picture.